The View from Saturday

By E.L Konigsburg

Book Review

Victoria A.

4^th hour

3/3/13

     How had Mrs. Olinski chosen her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? This becomes one of the book's most asked questions, with numerous answers. Especially why it was such a good team. Why did she pick Nadia, Ethan, Noah, and Julian? What made them special enough to be picked?

     This is a story about all the answers, to how the sixth-grade Academic Bowl team beating the seventh grade for the first time, and even the eighth grade, to how Nadia, Ethan, Noah, and Julian got this far, and their becoming of The Souls. But one question won't be answered until the end: Will they win the state regional in Albany, New York?

     The book is told from alternating points of view from all the characters, which is separated into third person between the chapters. The first person is to explain how the characters know each other, and how they know the answers to the Academic Bowl questions. The third person is when they are actually giving the answers to the questions at the state regional, and sometimes narrating Mrs. Olinski.

     When Eve Marie Olinski returns to Epiphany middle school after becoming paraplegic (paralyzed from the waist down) from an automobile accident, she chooses four students from the sixth-grade classroom, who formed a group called The Souls, to be in the Academic Bowl competition. They not only won, they trumped the other sixth-grade teams, and even the seventh and eighth grades until they reach for the New York championship in Albany.

     Noah Gershom was picked because he is a natural leader, and smart. He knows that the key to winning the academic bowl is to work together. He wears glasses and has brown hair, and his mother is a doctor and his father is a dentist, who gave Nadia's mom a job. He also hates writing Bread and Butter Letters.

     Nadia Diamondstein is a beautiful girl with curly red hair and a smart dog named Ginger, who she refers to all the time as a genius. She also helped make sure baby turtles migrate to the Sargasso sea. Her parent's are divorced, and she sometimes deals with abandonment.

     Ethan Potter loves theater and wants to become a costume designer for plays. He has blonde hair and is nervous all the time, except with The Souls, who help him become more outgoing. He is always measured up against his older brother, Lucas, and his teachers throughout the years are disappointed in him for not being as athletic or smart as Lucas. Ethan also lives on a farm, and his family is the oldest in Epiphany.

     Julian Singh is an Indian boy with black hair and sports a British accent from learning at a boarding school in England. He is sort of an outsider. His mother, who was a singer, died young, and his father used to be a cook on a cruise ship. They now bought a house to host a Bed and Breakfast inn. Since Julian comes from a different culture, he gets teased a lot by classmates in the story. He also is good at magic tricks.

     Noah narrates his love for Calligraphy and his account of being best man at his grandfather’s friend’s wedding at Century Village in Florida. Nadia recalls meeting Ethan in Century Village and also working to conserve sea turtles. Ethan describes meeting Julian at the beginning of the year, who is new in town. Ethan get's invited to his tea parties on Saturday at four o' clock, when it turns out that Nadia and Noah were invited too. While there, they become close friends and decide to name themselves the Souls, and Julian gives them all a penny made in that year to signify the birth of the group.

     The conflict in this book is on whether or not they'll win the championship, and throughout the story Julian gets bullied by troublemakers named Hamilton Knapp and Jared Lord. Also Nadia's dog Ginger plays a part in the play Annie, and there is competition over Hamilton's dog to make sure that Ginger can't go on stage opening night.

     The resolution is the characters remembering throughout their experiences and studying with Mrs. Olinski as they solve the answers throughout the championship.

     The number of pages of this book is 163, with the last three pages having answers to the Academic Bowl questions.

     I liked this book in many ways, from the original characters to the way E.L Konigsburg writes, the way she just manages to hook you in and tell you a good story. I enjoyed the perspectives of Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian because they all felt real. They felt real in the sense of their thoughts, their dreams, their feelings. I also found that the suspense kept me reading for long hours since I had to know whether or not they'll win.

     Perfectly balancing the different views, I found myself becoming accustomed to the way they understand each other and the world. It's also a very original book, since I haven't heard of another one quite like this.

     I recommend this book, even to seventh graders, because the story was worth reading. The characters are what I loved the most about it, since it makes you attached to them, and it's hard to have a favorite one. Especially when they're all original and have different views on the world. Sometimes throughout the book I wished that I was part of The Souls, to have that role in a different look on life. I wanted to hold meetings on Saturdays, and just like they did, tell which day I would like to relive.

     The View from Saturday is a book that makes you think, makes you wonder, makes you want answers. The minute you start reading, the first question will come into your head as fast as The Souls hit a buzzer at the Academic Bowl: did Eve Marie Olinski choose them, or did they choose her?

     I don't know about you, but I think that it's both.